


Starfucker

by neurosis_in_noir



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Angst, End of the World, Gen, Metafiction, Obsession, Unsettling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-06
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-23 18:04:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1574681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neurosis_in_noir/pseuds/neurosis_in_noir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike returns to his old caretaker, Twilight. It's been five years since she started her Star Swirl biography, and five since he left. Things get bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starfucker

"Twilight? Uh... Twilight, you in here?"

 

 

 

Spike tiptoed between the fallen books of his former home. All around him, the rot of the giant tree's innards had wafted into the air, a putrid, stifling cage. Dim orange filtered in from the last sunset.

He heard some muttering down the hallway: "Clock is ticking, Twilight. Clock ... is ... ticking ..."

Could it be her? She sounded so weak.

He pushed open the door to her small private study. "Twilie ... ?"

 

The first thing he noticed was the state of Twilight's wings. The purple in them had been drained out in large patches left a necrotic grey. The same went for her mane - aside from the highlights, which Spike suspected probably weren't natural anymore, it had the bright sheen of quicksilver. A sickly green light crept over the floor and walls.

"Oh... Spike, hello." Twilight didn't even turn around. "Can you run into the library and grab  _The Decline and Fall of the Canterlot Empire_  for"--

"No, Twilight."

Enough was enough. Spike wouldn't let things end for her in this room. 

"Your biography is finished. We're sending it in to Celestia, now.

"Put down the quill and we'll go out, get some daisy sandwiches, huh? Maybe a three-tier cake," he added sarcastically. She didn't take it in.

"B-but - it's not ..."

Spike walked closer up to Twilight. He had nothing to fear from his former caretaker now. It was plain her magic had dwindled to nothing: When a unicorn overdraws her magic, it feeds on her body. The first thing to go is the color in her mane. That's why alicorns were so powerful - their wings served the dual purpose of magical batteries.

But Twilight the Inquisitive had flown too close to the sun in her pursuit for knowledge, and the wings were useless now. She just  _had_  to learn  _everything_  about Star Swirl for the biography - what he ate, who his friends were, which mares he loved in his long life. Knowledge-generation spells had burned her out.

After five years, it was time to settle this. He picked up the crumbling parchment from Twilight's worn desk, inhaled deeply, and sent it in green messenger's fire to the Canterlot Library.

But Twilight's little light went out. Spike heard a crash, falling books.

"Twilight!"

Fumbling in the darkness, Spike picked his former master up easily - my, she had lost weight! Nothing but hide and bones. Cake and sandwiches were starting to seem like a very good idea.

 

He carried her through the main wing, and then out into the twilit town. The sun's low red beams only heightened the discoloration.

Twilight muttered something indistinct under her breath. "I wasn't finished..."

Spike put her down. "What did you say?"

"Spike, I wasn't... I wasn't finished... I'm going to fail... I'll never find the defective spell now."

Spike cocked his head. There was only a minute or two of sunlight left.

"Twilight. It's been five years. What about your friends? What about Equestria? Luna had a relapse while you were gone. And we couldn't use your Element of Harmony because you wouldn't let anyone near you and your precious library! And, now, it's..." He couldn't bring himself to say it. Twilight of the idols, indeed.

"My friends? ..." Twilight found the strength to chuckle, cynically. "Star Swirl was the best friend I ever had, Spike. The best friend..."

Spike couldn't hold it any longer. He got down on top of her, wrung her neck in his arms, and screamed: "HE'S! NOT! HERE! HE'S! **DEAD!!!** "

Thirty seconds. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. The stars were poking through.

"He had developed a spell, Spike. A defective spell. It could bring the dead back to life, given a - a sufficiently comprehensive literary account of their lives. But it was broken, made the resurrected a slave to the caster. I wanted to bring him back... That's what all this was about. Heh, heh."

 

Spike began to understand. He felt exhausted by the revelation.

All this time, she was trying to protect them, by bringing back the most powerful wizard of the era. She wanted to fight Nightmare Moon harder than anyone else could.

But...

"But then why didn't you just fight Nightmare Moon yourself? We had already won, once, Twilie..."

Ten. Nine. Eight.

She closed her eyes.

"That was irrelevant, Spike. I wanted Star Swirl for  _me._  He was supposed to be  _mine_."

His heart sank. He was wrong. Twilight's nascent fetish for Star Swirl had reached the point of obsession, and she had doomed a world for it.

But at least they can be together in Hell.

Spike tightened his grip on the mare's throat. Tears slipped out. He didn't feel sad.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.


End file.
